Born to a farmer and a normal housewife in a farming village in Tar Madding. When he first started to make friends, some of them joked around with him about his eye colors, saying he had some husky in him; his left eye was blue and his right eye was a green/hazel combination. When he became old enough, he started to help his father in the fieldsl turning over the soil, planting the crops, and harvesting them at the end of the year. He accepted his simple life and enjoyed it.
But that all changed. At the age of 7, a gleeman stopped in the village for the night and told many tales and sang many stories. The tales and stories about the Gaidin and Aes Sedai made the largest impression on him and he started to dream about becoming a warder. Knowing that he would one day live his dream, he learned how to fight with the quarterstaff and improved his marksmanship with the bow.
As he got older, he felt he improved his skill in the quarterstaff. He became the best skilled in his village with both the quarterstaff and bow. From what he heard from the stories, though, he suspected that warders used swords more often than any thing else. Unfortunately for him, there was nobody in his village skilled in the sword, let alone someone who could teach him the basic forms for it.
Then, one summer, his father decided to take some of his harvest to Tear. Knowing how well skilled his boy had become in both the quarterstaff and bow, he took him with him. When they came within view of Tear, Artus could do nothing but stare and gawk at all the buildings and people that were running about. They stayed in Tear for 3 days and all 3 days Artus felt uncomfortable around so many strange people.
The next spring, when he started to plow the fields, a strange accident occurred. The plow he was using shattered and a piece of metal cut his cheek to the bone. Going to the village widom, she healed him as best she could with her herbs but he was left with a scar on his left cheek.
The summer prior to his departure, he started to grow his hair longer and keep it tied up in a pony tail. He decided that this would be his last summer helping his father on the farm. He managed to find some extra work to earn some silver for when he left. Nobody suspected he had planned to travel to Tar Valon to train to become a gaidin; he told no one, not even his closest friend whom he trusted fully. The day he left for Tar Valon was an unemotional day, as he suspected for himself. He had learned how to keep his emotions buried and in check.